Ms. Dawn Nelson, ESM Staff Coordinator for Academic and Support Personnel, has completed the 63-hour certificate program titled Mastering SuperVision. The program is for those with supervisory responsibilities and helps participants develop their own supervisory skills including coaching, enabling, and empowering others. The program culminates with team projects that are done above and beyond the classroom . Congratulations Dawn.

Dr. Tony Huang, James Henderson Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be chairing a session at the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Micro Heat Transfer conference in Shanghai, China from December 16 – 20. While in China, Professor Huang will be giving invited seminars at Fudan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University, and Southeast University on the topic of Active Microfluidics: Manipulating Fluids, Particles, and Light at the Micro/Nano Scale

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science. Dr. Lakhtakia receives his honor for distinguished contributions to optics in complex materials including chiral materials, and especially for the development of sculptured thin films as nanoengineered metamaterials.

Dr. S. Ashok, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will travel to New Delhi, India to present a tutorial on Solar Cells. At the Photovoltaics conference, he will attend, organize, and chair sessions. Also, he will meet with collaborators at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai to continue the joint research in photovoltaics and ion implantation in semiconductors. His trip will be from December 11 – 23, 2009.

Dr. Patrick Lenahan, Distinguished Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been elevated to the rank of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Fellow, effective January 1, 2010. Congratulations Pat!

IEEE is the world’s largest professional association advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community to innovate for a better tomorrow through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. IEEE is the trusted “voice” for engineering, computing and technology information around the globe.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, along with Tom Mackay, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, UK, recently published a new book entitled “Electromagnetic Anisotropy and Bianisotropy, A Field Guide.”

The topics of anisotropy and bianisotropy are fundamental to electromagnetics from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. These properties underpin a host of complex and exotic electromagnetic phenomenons in naturally occurring materials and in relativistic scenarios, as well as in artificially produced metamaterials. As a unique guide to this rapidly developing field, the book provides a unified presentation of key classic and recent results on the studies of constitutive relations, spacetime symmetries, planewave propagation, dyadic Green functions, and homogenization of composite materials. This book also offers an up-to-date extension to standard treatments of crystal optics with coverage on both linear and weakly nonlinear regimes.